Some of you are probably wondering what this is all about, but it is about acknowledging everything you are grateful for… yes you heard me what you are GRATEFUL and THANKFUL for. Things that you already have in your life that will make you feel good, warm and happy. This isn’t just done on one day, that’s not why it is called Grateful in April, it is 30 days of writing down 3 things at night or in the morning of what you are grateful for. Why 30 days? This is so that you are able to shift your thought patterns, your negative energy and mentality that you may have, but also that it takes 30 days to make something a habit – so ideally if you’re in the right mind set it will take 30 days to break one.
Majority of us spend way too much time focusing on the negatives, focusing on what we don’t have, using the good old “Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda” routine… Sadly I know this all too well. Since the end of year 12 and leaving uni it has definitely been a struggle, struggle to see the light, what is positive and I was forgetting what I have, what I have done and what I have achieved. I started getting very agitated, getting angry at the smallest of things, isolating myself from everyone and everything. I had no direction or anything just made me miserable and I spent most of my time moping around the house wondering if things would get better, be different and crap like that.
I didn’t know how to get out of this vicious cycle that I managed to get myself into so I booked myself into a confidence course that I attended at Holmesglen for two Wednesdays. The first day I think helped me immensely it put perspective onto everything I was feeling – especially my crazy fear of change. Change in myself, change in my environment and change in those around me was so very daunting for me and really did scare me half to death. The lecturer was able to put a name to what I was doing and I was creating “disaster movies” in my head, this disaster movie meant that I would create this fake environment that would exemplify everything that was happening in my own environment and I would look for the worst possible thing to happen. This version of my disaster movie was the most current thought that I was always experiencing and making me react the way that I did, instead of having the positives in the front of my head and being the most current thought it was being overrun.
I was able to overcome this by creating my own goodie bag, they are only lists, but they are so very powerful it was my bag of power thoughts. The thoughts that I had to write down was a list of 10 things that I had achieved, 10 things that I am grateful for and 10 self-esteem things that I like. Another strategy that I have adopted is the use of affirmations, I have a list in my phone and I read them every morning and every night before bed. I also acknowledge the negative thoughts when they enter my head and I have learnt how to move on from them and not let my thoughts dwell on them and turn them into a big deal. They are just very small strategies but if you are able to implement them then they can make a huge difference.
That is why I feel that Grateful in April is so relevant to me and what I am experiencing right now and what I am going through. If I am able to stick with writing down three things that I appreciate, adding things to my list that forms my goodie bad and reading my affirmations I believe that I will come out stronger then ever before. I’m already making improvements and making changes and I feel so much better about myself and I hope to stay that way.
natski 